Can Female Swordtails Change Into Males

[olly24]

hi i have 2 female swordtails and i want a male so i can breed them but my lfs said as i have 2 females 1 will change in to a male so i dont need to buy 1 is this true

 

[shaz3271]

hi i have 2 female swordtails and i want a male so i can breed them but my lfs said as i have 2 females 1 will change in to a male so i dont need to buy 1 is this true

well yes and no (im not an expert im sure someone will let you know better then me)

females do change into males sometimes but become sterile (what i read)

sharon

 

[olly24]

o rite so in that case i would still have to buy a male if wanting to breed

 

[dwarfgourami]

Scholarly consensus seems to be that there is no proven case of swordtails changing sex. There are fish that do so- best known are the marine clown fish- but no livebearer as far as is known. What people have been seeing in swordtals is no doubt late developing males. In the case of a late developiong male, then the presence of females may well trigger puberty, but it is not going to change a female into anything else.

 

[olly24]

ok thanks for the replys

 

[helterskelter]

What it is is some swords are late devlopers and I've seen them take upto 12 months to mature, this is usualy when their are other males around though.

So if seperated off a large fish may then devlope in to a male, but this fish would of never been a female in the first place.